Eleven Days in Hell - The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, TX

On July 24, 1974, three prisoners at Huntsville State Prison took over the prison’s library. Armed with guns smuggled in to them, they made hostages of the civilian workers and prisoners present in the library.It was the beginning of an 11-day siege that ended in a bloody shootout and two dead women hostages.Eleven Days In Hell, The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, Texas is the first systematic and serious study of the events that took place on those hot July and August days."Mr. Harper's thorough research provided information that we, as hostages, were not privy to. This is a true and riveting account of a very sad experience." Linda Woodman, hostage.

"It was the longest civilian hostage-taking siege in American penology.The product of interviews with 16 participants and an exhaustive examination of archival material about the siege, this book is both authoritative and absorbing. In Harper’s hands, the combination of internal Texas Department of Corrections studies, papers maintained at the prison, and participant memories is blended into a story that makes a reader feel they were there as events unfolded. "Harper captures the many perspectives in which the siege was experienced. He places you in the library with the hostages. He puts you in the prison offices where corrections officials planned their strategies. He sets you among the news media covering the story, excited yet frustrated at a lack of information. He captures the feelings of the general prison population locked down in their cells, unable even to eat in their cafeteria. It was in the same building as the library." -- Mark Lardas, Galveston Daily News."Eleven Days In Hell... is a gripping account of a 1974 Texas prison siege that, at the time, never got the national attention that such a story usually ratel The main perpeetrator a hardened convict named Fred Gomez Carrasco, wanted to make a big splash, but he started the siege just as President Nixon was being pressured to step down from office in shame. Fortunately, William Harper's book does a superb job of taking his readers back to that prison in Huntsville, Texas and fleshing out the events and characters that made those eleven days so memorable for those who were there." -- George Lewis, NBC News.To purchase "Eleven Days in Hell..." $18.00 for paperback version (plus $5.00 tax/shipping) - e-mail: harperhere@LIVE.comor at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Eleven-Days-Hell-Carrasco-Huntsville/dp/1574412647/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340492167&sr=1-2&keywords=eleven+days+in+hell and at Barnes and Noble here - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eleven-days-in-hell-william-t-harper/1101211278?ean=9781574412642